Naperville North hangs tough on defense
In his first varsity start Naperville North cornerback Mike Wisner was tested early.
Like the Huskies defense all night long Friday, Wisner was up to the test, knocking away two Thornton passes into the end zone and forcing the Wildcats to settle for a field goal after going to the Naperville North 1-yard line on their opening drive.
Naperville North earned its first victory of the football season, 14-10 in a nonconference home game.
“It was crazy,” said Wisner, who took last year off to improve his grades. “I saw him coming out of the corner of my eye and I knew it was do-or-die time and I just had to get him in the corner and stop the touchdown. That would have really changed the game if they had scored there. I’m happy to have stopped it and I’m happy to be back in football.”
“That’s Mikey Wisner’s first varsity start,” Huskies coach Sean Drendel said. “He makes two big plays on the first drive and any time you can hold an explosive offense — they put 49 points on the board last week — to just giving a field goal and 10 for the game. That’s amazing, and credit to our defense, but Mikey made two great plays to start the game.”
Thronton’s offense never got into rhythm again after that.
The Huskies (1-1) got both their touchdowns early in the second quarter. After Thornton turned the ball over on downs at its 29-yard line, the Huskies needed just four plays before quarterback Tyler Gehr found tight end Zac Martin over the middle for a 14-yard scoring pass.
On their next series the Huskies took over at the Thornton 43. Running back Danny Puknaitis ran 42 yards on the first play, then went off left guard for the touchdown and a 14-3 lead.
Thornton narrowed the lead with a 79-yard TD pass from Jason Towns to Jamel Frazier with 3:09 left in the first half. From then on the game was all about defense and special teams.
“We just tackled better tonight,” Drendel said. “To be honest we didn’t tackle at all last week against Neuqua, and tonight we tackled and we got a few hats on some kids and we gang-tackled a little and that allowed us to win the game.”
“We have a great offense, but today just wasn’t their day,” said Thornton senior linebacker Dominic Bryant, who had 3 sacks.
“Naperville’s a very good school, a very good school. We underestimated them. We didn’t come prepared and that’s why we got the ‘L’ today.”
The Wildcats (1-1) had the Huskies’ attention, especially their speed on offense.
“They’re awesome,” Drendel said. “They’re a great team. I told our kids I wouldn’t be surprised if they ran the table from here. They’re fast and they’re physical. They’ve got both ends, and they’re really well-coached. They don’t make mistakes so your margin for mistakes is minimal. Our defense hung in there and kept us in the game.”